B&O’s new headphones offer luxury listening for (a little) less

Lambskin and aluminium wireless cans for a buck shy of US$300

09 February 2017by Stuff Staff

Hang about – $299 is hardly pocket change…

Unless you’re a real rock ‘n’ roll star. But, no, the Beoplay H4 isn’t a bargain bucket buy – though it is a good deal less than any of B&O’s wireless headphones to date, and you’ll still get you a properly nice pair of cans.
How nice?

How do lambskin cushions with memory foam innards sound? Oh, and there are aluminium elements, too – like the ear cup discs – to make things feel even nicer. Unless you’re vegan, of course, in which case you’ll want something like Bose’s QuietComfort 35 (which uses synthetic protein leather for its pads).

Like all the best things, the aluminium on the H4 has been stamped, polished and anodised, while the cord connecting the two discs is braided because, well, it looks good. Rope is very 2017, see.

OK, so there’s lots of lovely Danish design going on. What about the sound quality?

That should be pretty nice, too, if prior form is anything to go by. Noise isolation on the H4 is passive, but that memory foam stuff should mean it’s all nice and snug around the ear, so you won’t get baby screams ruining the crescendo of your favourite cello concerto.

Better still, pair your Beoplay H4 headphones with your iOS or Android smartphone and you’ll be able to use the Beoplay app to enable sound profiles such as Commute and Workout, as well as tweaking things to suit your own ears with ToneTouch.
Wait, so these things are wireless?

Didn’t we mention? The H4 pairs via Bluetooth for easy listening, offering up to 19 hours of wireless sound. They’ll take two and a half hours to charge, mind, so best to plug them in the night before your trip if you want to go cable free. If the cell does go dead, mind, you can always stick in the bundled cable to continue your audio escape with wires.

I’m a shuffle addict.

Worry not: there are buttons on the BeoPlay H4 so you can hit skip to your heart’s content when they launch on 9 February, as well as answering calls and, of course, pausing the music for a design appreciation break.